i have a buddy that can form carbon fiber using a his schools autoclave. would carbon fiber be good for ic piping? cf is good at dissipating heat and is light, right? just giving it a thought because i've never seen it done before.

 

if he's going to do it, then I'd suggest putting an aluminum ring in each end of the pipe for where the clamps are going to be...I'd be worried about cracking the cf. I don't think they'd dissipate heat or absorb it. Composites are like plastics...not much if any heat conduction either way.

 

Oh yeah...what kind of mold is he planning on using? Lost wax...or laying it up in 2 pieces the epoxying them together? I was thinking of doing some cf piping myself.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bryan305 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Oh yeah...what kind of mold is he planning on using? Lost wax...or laying it up in 2 pieces the epoxying them together? I was thinking of doing some cf piping myself. </TD></TR></TABLE>

not sure, i'm going to have to ask him. i would rather have it together rather than clamped together. i just want everything to look clean and tidy.

 

It would look ******* sick though!

 

reminds me of the jaguar xkr (xk8?) intake tubes..mmmm...carbon fiber

probably made using the lost wax method..

post some pics of the finish product if it does push thru.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i would rather have it together rather than clamped together. i just want everything to look clean and tidy.
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At the ends (like the TB, intercooler, and turbo outlet) you will still have to have clamps and the aluminum will suport it better

-Dustin

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Autocratic_1st_Gen &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

At the ends (like the TB, intercooler, and turbo outlet) you will still have to have clamps and the aluminum will suport it better

-Dustin</TD></TR></TABLE>

true, i just thought about that after i typed my response. im going to have to ask my buddy about starting on my ****.

 

Sounds nice. Worth trying.

 

could make some $$$ if you get this to work. Ill be one of the first customers

 

You would have to be pretty patient and not worry about wasting CF materials if the first few tried don't work out well. I doubt it would have any weight savings over AL intercooler piping, but it would look cool.

I'd imagine you would have to use destructive molds (one time use molds) to make compound curve tubes like intercooler pipes. This makes things all the more expensive though.
I'm working on a CF cold air box, if I have time left over I may look into fabricating a few pipes. Good luck if you decide to try it out

You will still need to use silicone couplers and Tbolt clamps. If you incorporated ribs in the molds at the pipe ends you would not have slippage issues. Also if the CF fibers are orientated the correct way you will not need to support the ends with Aluminum.

 

good show car idea, i dont think it will shave that much weight off the aluminum IC piping anyway. Can i be withstand 850degree of heat under the hood without decomposing?

 

This would just add some zing to the engine bay, and there would be some small benefits to heat dissipation(i think?), but I think mainly its for looks. What about BOV mounting? Just some other ideas to toss around...